Structure for attachment of weather strip

ABSTRACT

A structure attaches weather stripping to the body along the side of a roof of a vehicle body, and is especially useful around a door opening thereof. A molding that extends along the side of a roof for covering an outside surface of the weather strip is attached to the vehicle by securing a base portion of the molding to an outer part of the body wall defining the door opening. The weather strip has a bottom portion and a sealing portion. An outer part of the bottom portion is bonded to the base portion of the molding with a first double-sided adhesive tape, while an inner part of the bottom portion is bonded to the body wall defining the door opening with a second double-sided adhesive tape which is made of a material having a density below that of a material forming the first double-sided adhesive tape.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 08/391,605 filed Feb. 21,1995, now patented under U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,926.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to weather strips for motor vehicles, and,more particularly, to a structure for attaching weather strips along aside portion of a roof, and along the roof portion which defines thedoor openings in the vehicle body.

2. Description of Prior Art

It is known to attach weather strips along the sides of a roof portionof a vehicle to provide seals around closed windows, especially doormounted windows.

In one example of such a structure for attaching weather strips, abottom portion of a weather strip is bonded to a body wall, defining adoor opening, with double-sided adhesive tapes (Japanese Utility Modelapplication laid-open No. Hei 1-112110).

Roof molding is generally provided on a vehicle body structure to coveran outside surface of weather stripping used adjacent the roof. Suchroof molding is normally attached to the vehicle body through a baseportion secured to the vehicle body, for example, about the dooropening. In another example of a structure for attaching weather strips,the thus attached roof molding has a configuration that holds the bottomportion of the weather strip, and serves as a retainer therefore. Withthis structure, the bottom portion of the weather strip is fitted in orbonded to the roof molding which acts as the retainer (Japanese Patentapplication laid-open No. Hei 5-213119).

The present inventors have contemplated one structure for attachment ofweather strips based on the above-described examples of structures.Namely, as shown in FIG. 1, along a side 10' of the roof of a vehiclebody, roof molding 16 is attached by securing a flat plate-shaped baseportion 17 to an outer part of a body wall 12', which defines a dooropening, with screws 20. A bottom portion 31 of a weather strip 30 isbonded to both the base portion 17 of the molding 16 and to an innerpart of the body wall 12' with double-sided adhesive tape 50. With thisarrangement, a retainer is not needed, thereby reducing productioncosts; and by virtue of the double-sided adhesive tape 50, the weatherstrip 30 can be attached easily and efficiently.

This structure, however, suffers from the formation of steps ordepressions created around the heads of screws 20 and along the inneredge of base portion 17. These steps generate spaces between thedouble-sided adhesive tape 50 and both the facing roof molding 16 andbody wall 12'. This can cause the double-sided adhesive tape 50 aroundthese spaces to peel off gradually from the roof molding 16 and the bodywall 12', so that the sealing properties of the weather strip 30 againstthe body wall 12' and the stability in attachment of the weather strip30 to the vehicle body both will gradually degrade.

Front and rear ends of the roof molding 16 are located on the door beltline, and steps are also formed along the front and rear ends of theroof molding 16 with respect to the body wall defining the door opening.Furthermore, in a joint portion, which joins the weather strip 30 alongthe side of the roof and a weather strip along a center pillar, stepsare also formed in a bottom surface thereof. These steps cause spaces tobe formed between the double-sided adhesive tape 50 and the facing bodywall, thereby exhibiting similar problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide astructure for attaching weather strips, covered by molding extendingalong the side of a roof of a vehicle body, with double-sided adhesivetape without creating spaces or any peeling of the double-sided adhesivetape and related problems.

The above-described object of the present invention is attained byhaving an outer part of a bottom portion of the weather strip bonded toa base portion of the roof molding, which is secured to the part of thevehicle body wall defining a door opening, with a first double-sidedadhesive tape. In addition, an inner part of the bottom portion of theweather strip is also bonded to the body wall on the inside of the baseportion of the roof molding with a second double-sided adhesive tapethat is spaced from and separate from the first adhesive tape.

The object of the present invention is also attained by having thebottom portion of the weather strip formed of a hard material formedwith an outer end portion configuration that acts as the roof molding.The resulting roof molding is bonded to an outer part of the body walldefining a door opening with a first double-sided adhesive tape, whilean inner part of the hard bottom portion is bonded to an inner part ofthe body wall defining a door opening with a second double-sidedadhesive tape.

Other objects, features, and characteristics of the present inventionwill become apparent upon consideration of the following description andthe appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all ofwhich form a part of this specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a prior art preliminary version of aweather strip attaching structure;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a motor vehicle to which thepresent invention is applied;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a first embodiment of the presentinvention taken along the line III--III of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the portion A of FIG. 2 taken along theline IV--IV of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view, taken along the line V--V ofFIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view, taken along the line VI--VI ofFIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the portion B of FIG. 2 taken along theline VII--VII of FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment in accordancewith the present invention, taken along the same line as that of FIG. 3;and

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a third embodiment in accordancewith the present invention, taken along the same line as that of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIGS. 2 through 7 illustrate a first embodiment of the presentinvention. As shown in FIG. 2, a weather strip 32 is attached to a bodywall 12 along a side 10 of the roof of a vehicle body to provide a sealaround a door window pane 14 of a sashless door.

As shown in FIG. 3, the weather strip 32 is an extruded body of rubber,and is composed of a bottom portion 33, made of solid rubber, and atubular sealing portion 34, made of sponge rubber, which is pushed up bythe door window pane 14 as the window moves into a closed position.

The body wall 12, defining a door opening, forms a flat weatherstrip-attaching face. A roof molding 21, on the side of the roof, iscomposed of a metal member 22 and a molding member 23 which covers anouter portion of the metal member 22. A base portion 24 of the metalmember 22 is flat and has a width less than that of the body wall 12.The base portion 24 is positioned in contact with the body wall 12 andis secured thereto, for example, with screws 20.

The weather strip 32 is attached using two belt-shaped double-sidedadhesive tapes (hereinafter merely called "adhesive tape"). Morespecifically, an outer part of the bottom portion 33 of the weatherstrip 32 is bonded to the base portion 24 of the roof molding 21, alonga region outside of screws 20, with a first adhesive tape 51. An innerpart of the bottom portion 33 is also bonded to the body wall 12 butinside the inner edge of the base portion 24, with a second adhesivetape 52. As shown in FIG. 3, a trim member 18 is attached to a bodyflange 15 which protrudes from body wall 12.

With this arrangement, the adhesive tapes 51 and 52 are, respectively,arranged away from the steps around the heads of the screws 20 and alongthe inner edge of the base portion 24 of the roof side molding 21.Accordingly, no space is generated between the adhesive tapes 51 and 52and the facing roof molding 21 and body wall 12. Consequently, theadhesive tapes 51 and 52 are positioned in a manner that prevents thegaps that can lead to peeling of base portion 24.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a front end of the weather strip 32showing the portion designated A in FIG. 2. A front end of the roofmolding 21 terminates on a door belt line 13 (FIG. 2). In contrast, thefront end of the weather strip 32 further extends downwardly. As shownin FIG. 5, the first adhesive tape 51, which bonds weather strip 32 tobase portion 24 of the roof molding 21, extends downwardly along a frontend 25 of the base portion 24 to bond the front end of the weather strip32 to the body wall 12 defining the door opening. This results in aspace 26 being formed between the first adhesive tape 51 and the facingbody wall 12 adjacent the front end 25 of the base portion 24.

As shown in FIG. 6, the second adhesive tape 52 bonds weather strip 32to the body wall 12 defining the door opening over the entire lengththereof.

If the first adhesive tape 51 around the resulting spaces 26 graduallypeels away from body wall 12, the stability in attachment of the weatherstrip 32 to the body wall 12, and the sealing properties of the weatherstrip 32 against the body wall 12, are still both ensured. This isbecause, as shown in FIG. 6, the weather strip 32 is also bonded closelyto the body wall 12 with the second adhesive tape 52.

FIG. 7 illustrates a molded joint member 35 which joins the weatherstrips 32 and a pillar weather strip 39, the portion designated B inFIG. 2. As shown, an outer part 37 of a bottom portion 36 of the jointmember 35 forms a plane surface continuous with the bottom portions 33of the weather strips 32. An inner part 38 of the joint bottom portion36 has a concave configuration so as to join the bottom portions 33 ofthe weather strip 32 to the bottom portion of the pillar weather strip39. The outer part 37 of the bottom portion 36 is bonded to the baseportion 24 of the roof molding 21 (FIG. 3) with the first adhesive tape51 which extends continuously along with the weather strips 32 as shown.The second adhesive tape 52, however, is cut off in the area of theinner part 38, of joint member 35, so as not to be-provided in andaround the concave portion of the inner part 38 of the joint member 35.This structure eliminates the creation of gaps in the adhesive tape andthus the peeling of the second adhesive tape 52, which could occur ifthe second adhesive tape 52 was provided in and around the concaveportion of the inner part 38.

In the joint member 35 shown in FIG. 7, the stability in the attachmentof the weather strips 32 to the body wall 12, and the sealing propertiesof weather strips 32 against the base portion 24 of the roof molding 21,are both ensured by virtue of the continuous seal provided by the firstadhesive tape 51.

With the present embodiment, the adhesive tapes 51 and 52 are,respectively, arranged away from the steps around the heads of thescrews 20 and inner edges of the base portion 24 of the roof molding 21.With this arrangement, no space is generated between the adhesive tapes51 and 52 and the facing roof molding 21 and body wall 12.

It is preferable to form the second adhesive tape 52 of a material thatis softer, or more compressible or yieldable, than the material used toform the first adhesive tape 51 for the following reasons. There arestep-like joints in the body wall 12 defining the door opening thatresult in spaces being formed between the base portion 24 of the roofmolding 21 and body wall 12. If an upper edge of the roof molding 21 isspaced apart from a body wall along a side of the roof, water intrudesinto the roof molding 21, and then further intrudes into the vehiclecompartment by way of spaces around the step-like joints in the bodywall 12. In order to overcome this water intrusion situation, the secondadhesive tape 52 is formed of a soft material compressible by 25% inthickness under a load of 0.1 to 0.5 kg/cm², which improves thedeformability of the second adhesive tape 52 thereby allowing it toconform with the step-like joints in the body wall 12. This results inthe weather strip 32 being bonded much more closely to the step-likejoints, without generating spaces, thereby exhibiting complete sealingproperties even in such areas. Furthermore, with the present embodiment,the first adhesive tape 51 is formed of a relatively hard materialcompressible by 25% in thickness under a load of 0.8 to 2.0 kg/cm². Thisensures good securing properties of the weather strip 32 to the baseportion 24 of roof molding 21.

The adhesive tape is generally composed of a belt-like foam member of afoamed acrylic resin or the like, and adhesive layers provided onopposite surfaces of the belt-like foam member. The hardness of theadhesive tape, which can range as described above, can be adjusted byvarying the expansion ratio of the belt-like foam member.

In the present embodiment, the bottom portion 33 of the weather strip 32is preferably formed of solid rubber. Alternatively, the entire portionof weather-strip 32 may be formed of sponge rubber. In addition, a trimmolding 60, such as that shown in FIG. 8, may be formed integrally withthe weather strip 32. The adhesive tapes 51 and 52 need not be formedinto equal widths and thicknesses but they could be as well. Further,the second adhesive tape 52 may be divided, for example, into two ormore sections, in accordance with the configurations of the variousbonding surfaces of the weather strip 32 and body wall 12.

With the first embodiment, by virtue of the adhesive tapes, the weatherstrip can be easily and efficiently bonded to the body wall defining thedoor opening, to which the roof molding is attached. If the adhesion ofone of the adhesive tapes becomes incomplete or lessens, the other tapecompensates for such adhesion losses so that the stability in adhesionand sealing properties of the weather strip can be ensured over theentire length thereof.

FIG. 8 illustrates a second embodiment of the present invention. Aweather strip 40 has a hollow trapezoidal cross section, and is composedof a relatively thick and flat bottom portion 41 and a tubular sealingportion 42 formed integrally with bottom portion 41. The sealing portion42 is pushed up by an upper edge of a door window pane 14. The bottomportion 41 is secured to body wall 120 approximately at its widthwisecenter with clips 26.

An outer end of the bottom portion 41 protrudes outwardly of the sealingportion 42 to form a molding 60 at the side of the roof. The molding 60at the side of the roof has a generally triangular cross section. Abottom surface of the molding 60 comprises an extension of the bottomportion 41. An inside surface 61 of molding 60 is spaced from andopposed to an outside surface of the sealing portion 42. An outsidesurface 62 of the roof side molding 60 is generally flush with a bodywall along the roof side 110.

The weather strip 40, provided with molding 60, is formed integrally,for example, by extrusion molding techniques. Molding 60 and the bottomportion 41, except for a clip-attaching part thereof, are formed ofsolid rubber. The clip-attaching part of the bottom portion 41, and thesealing portion 42, are formed of sponge rubber. The sponge rubberclip-attaching part facilitates pushing of the clips 26 into the weatherstrip 40 from the body wall 12.

An opening trim 19 is attached to a body flange 15 protruding from thebody wall 120 to cover an inside surface of the weather strip 40.

The bottom surface of molding 60 and an inner part of the bottom surfaceof the bottom portion 41, of the weather strip 40, are bonded to thebody wall 120 with first and second adhesive tapes 53 and 54,respectively. It is preferable, but not mandatory, to form the firstadhesive tape 53 from a material that is softer than the second adhesivetape 54. With this arrangement, good sealing properties of the weatherstrip 40 against the body wall 120 can be ensured by virtue of thesofter first adhesive tape 53. Also, good securing properties of theweather strip 40 to the body wall 120 can be ensured by virtue of theharder second adhesive tape 54.

With the second embodiment, since molding 60 is formed integrally withweather strip 40, it is unnecessary to separately prepare molding forthe side of the roof and then attach it to the vehicle body. Thissimplifies construction, improves productivity, and lowers productioncosts. In addition, the body wall along the side 110 of the roof becomesflush with the outside surface of molding 60, thereby creating a simpleand neat appearance around the side of the automobile roof.

Door window panes 140 tend to be drawn outwardly during high-speedtravel of a motor vehicle. With the present embodiment, window panes 140in contact with molding 60, which is rigid due to the triangular crosssection through an outside wall of the sealing portion 42, providesupport for the windows and prevents such window panes from being drawnfurther outwardly.

FIG. 9 illustrates a third embodiment of the present invention. Asshown, a trim member 64, for example, one having a high gloss, isattached to a molding 63, again along the side of a roof. Molding 63 isformed integrally with a weather strip 43. The trim member 64 is, forexample, composed of stainless steel or other metal plate. A baseportion 65 of the trim member 64 is secured to an outer part of the bodywall 120', that defines a door opening, with screws 20, while the outerportion of trim member 64 covers the upper half of the outside surfaceof molding 63.

A bottom portion 44 of the weather strip 43, with which the roof sidemolding 63 is integrally formed, extends around the heads of mountingscrews 20. Molding 63 is bonded to base portion 65 of trim member 64with a first adhesive tape 55. The inner part of the bottom portion 44is bonded to the body wall 120' with a second adhesive tape 56. Asealing portion 45 and an opening trim 27, respectively, have aconstruction substantially identical to that of the second embodimentshown in FIG. 8.

The third embodiment achieves operational advantages substantiallyidentical to those described for the second embodiment. Trim member 64may be embedded in molding 63 such that an outer surface thereof isexposed from molding 63. Further, the bottom portion 44, as well asmolding 63, may be formed of synthetic resin.

With respect to both the second and third embodiments of the presentinvention, since the molding is formed integrally with the weatherstrip, there is no need for a separate molding along the side of theroof. This again simplifies construction, and improves productivitysince the weather strip and the molding are formed integrally, forexample, by extrusion techniques. Still further, since the molding alongthe side of the roof which covers the weather strip is flush with thebody wall along the roof's side, the appearance around the roof is alsosimple and neat. In addition, by virtue of the side molding, windowpanes in the doors or sides of the vehicle are prevented from beingdrawn outwardly.

While the invention has been described in connection with what areconsidered presently to be the most practical and preferred embodiments,it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to thedisclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to covervarious modifications and equivalent arrangements included within thespirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A structure for attaching a weather strip to abody wall along a side of a roof of a vehicle body wherein the weatherstrip has a tubular cross-sectional configuration and is comprised of abottom portion and a sealing portion, the structure comprising:a moldingcovering an outside surface of said weather strip and including a baseportion secured to an outer part of said body wall; a first double-sidedadhesive tape bondingly secured to an outer part of said bottom portionand said base portion; and a second double-sided adhesive tape bondinglysecured to an inner part of said bottom portion and said body wall, saidsecond double-sided adhesive tape being made of a material having adensity below that of a material forming said first double-sidedadhesive tape.
 2. The structure as in claim 1, wherein said base portionis secured to said body wall with screws, the outer part of said bottomportion being bonded to said base portion by positioning said firstdouble-sided adhesive tape outside of said screws.